An assessment of the adoption of compost manure by smallholder farmers in Balaka District, Malawi.

The decline in soil fertility is widespread in Malawi and is threatening food security in the country. While the use of inorganic fertilizers to improve soil fertility has immediate results, the escalating prices make it impossible for the majority of smallholder farmers to use them. There is, therefore, need for alternative low-cost soil fertility enhancing technologies. Compost manure seems to be a viable option to be promoted. This study was designed to assess the adoption of compost manure making and utilization by smallholder farmers. The study was conducted through a combination of individual interviews and observation of 150 smallholder farmers as well as through focus group discussions. Key recommendations for compost manure technology were identified through consultations with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Based on the key recommendations, a knowledge test was constructed to assess knowledge of the technology and a checklist was designed to assess farmer practice. The study revealed that the most critical factor that affected the adoption of compost manure technology was knowledge. Given that knowledge is a pre-requisite to any technology adoption, farmers knowledge on composting will therefore need to be raised substantially before appreciable levels of adoption can be expected. The amounts of compost that farmers made fell far short of their annual needs because of the late timing of the actual compost manure making. However, farmers have a positive perception of the compost manure technology as they believe it improves soil productivity

Secondary Atrophic Rhinitis: Autoimmune and Granulomatous Forms

Atrophic rhinitis is characterized by progressive nasal mucosal atrophy, nasal crusting, fetor, and enlargement of the nasal space with paradoxical nasal congestion. Among diseases responsible of secondary atrophic rhinitis, infective- and noninfective-granulomatous and autoimmune diseases may be advocated, even if they represent less than 1% of etiologies. This group of pathologies should be considered especially in patients without medical history of nasal surgery or radiation and in presence of systemic symptoms, such as low-grade fever, weight loss, and arthralgias. The most frequent autoimmune diseases resulting in atrophic rhinitis are granulomatosis with polyangiitis, sarcoidosis, and mucous membrane pemphigoid [1]. Among granulomatous infections, tuberculosis and syphilis are the leading reported causes of this group of rhinosinusitis [1]. An accurate anamnesis may highlight current or past unexplained skin lesions, arthritis, shortness of breath, or neurologic symptoms. In addition, history of travel in foreign countries and sexual promiscuity should be checked. Routine laboratory tests may underline high ESR and CRP values, anemia, and renal abnormalities, such as unexplained renal failure, proteinuria, and red cell casts. All patients with secondary atrophic rhinitis should undergo a Chest X-ray to rule out lung infiltrations or cavities and mediastinal lymphadenopathies. Presence of ANCA antibodies and QuantiFERON TB-test positivity should be checked; in presence of a suggestive history also VDRL, TPHA and HIV-test may be considered. A nasal biopsy aimed to perform histology and microbiological tests is usually required to confirm the diagnosis

Multi-objective optimized genomic breeding strategies for sustainable food improvement

The purpose of breeding programs is to obtain sustainable gains in multiple traits while controlling the loss of genetic variation. The decisions at each breeding cycle involve multiple, usually competing, objectives; these complex decisions can be supported by the insights that are gained by applying multi-objective optimization principles to breeding. The discussion in this manuscript includes the definition of several multi-objective optimized breeding approaches within the phenotypic or genomic breeding frameworks and the comparison of these approaches with the standard multi-trait breeding schemes such as tandem selection, independent culling and index selection. Proposed methods are demonstrated with two empirical data sets and simulations. In addition, we have described several graphical tools that can aid breeders in arriving at a compromise decision. The results show that the proposed methodology is a viable approach to answer several real breeding problems. In simulations, the newly proposed methods resulted in gains larger than the methods previously proposed including index selection: Compared to the best alternative breeding strategy, the gains from multi-objective optimized parental proportions approaches were about 20–30% higher at the end of long-term simulations of breeding cycles. In addition, the flexibility of the multi-objective optimized breeding strategies were displayed with methods and examples covering non-dominated selection, assignment of optimal parental proportions, using genomewide marker effects in producing optimal mating designs, and finally in selection of training populations for genomic prediction